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Garish Gal has officially been in business 3 YEARS! I can’t tell you how exciting, but also shocking that is! It certainly does not feel like it has been three years, but I am excited to see where the next few years take GG.

I get asked a lot about what it is like to start a business. Everyone wants to know what the journey is like, but few actually want to put in the work it takes to do so. I thought I would put together a list of things that no one really talks about. I feel like everyone wants starting a business to sound like it is all roses and immediate success, but that isn’t always what it actually is. So here are the Top 5 Things They Don’t Tell You About Starting A Business!

1. You will Lose Sleep

Every time I get charged for a shipment, I have a mini panic attack. I worry if the customers will like the new merchandise and I worry if it will sell. There are many nights you can’t sleep because your mind is so focused on the business. There will be mornings (and I am NOT a morning person) that you wake up at 4am thinking about something you should be doing for the business instead of sleeping. Learn to shut it off. It took me a long time to learn this. If I am being honest, I am still learning. I could worry myself to death with all the things that need to get done, but I know that I have to carve out time for myself. So I make a list of the things I need to do by the end of the day, once those are completed I move the rest to tomorrow’s list. Don’t let it consume you and find an outlet to relieve the stress and pressure!

2. It’s Okay to Delegate

It is okay to be bad at certain things within your business. I think when we start a business we think we have to do it all to save money. I learned the hard way that in the long run I was hurting sales because I was trying to do things I don’t do well on my own. We all have weaknesses, but we all also have strengths. When we recognize where we are weak, we also recognize where we are strong. Hire the photographer, hire the accountant, hire the social media person, hire someone for your weaknesses so that you can build your strengths. Your business will thrive much better when you focus on what you are good at and hire others where you are weak. We can’t do it all and we don’t have to.

3. You will Sacrifice A LOT

People tend to think that if you own a small business you have a ton of money and you are making a ton of money. This could be farther from the truth. If you took all the hours you spent working on your small business, you would be the most underpaid person in the world. You have to sacrifice time–be it with family, friends, or from something you want to do. But all the sacrifice is totally worth it. The minute someone comes in and buys something they LOVE, it makes every sleepless night and all the long hours seem like nothing. It drives you through the times when you have to miss that party you really wanted to go to, or the concert everyone is at but you.

Sidenote–I am not saying you should sacrifice relationships for your business. Success is incredible, but we were build for relationship. There is nothing more lonely than achieving success and having no one to celebrate it with. That doesn’t just mean partner, but friends and family as well! When you are surrounded by good people, your success actually increases. So make sure your tribe is one that uplifts and supports your dream!

4. It takes HARD WORK

As a millennial, I constantly hear how we are notorious for not being hard workers. Owning a business will throw that out the door. I grew up surrounded by hard workers–my parents and my grandparents taught us to work our tails off. I am so grateful for that because I see SO many people think they can start a successful business by doing the bare minimum. I see business after business fold because people don’t want to put in the work. The old adage you get out of it what you put into it holds true. It takes a lot of work to make a business thrive and there will be times when you don’t want to do the work. When that happens I promise you will immediately see the consequence of that laziness. So prove them wrong–show them that as a millennial you can work hard and drive a successful business. Otherwise, you are just wasting time and money!

5. It will be the Most Rewarding thing You Do

There is no better feeling than seeing my business have successes. I don’t like to say Garish Gal is successful, I like to say she has successes. Every day is different and every day is a challenge. There will be failures, or as I like to call them lessons learned. Don’t let them keep you from going after your dream. I remember before I started GG I told a boy I liked that I was starting a business. His response was “really are you smart enough and do you have enough money for that?” It almost stopped me from starting GG altogether. I remember thinking he was so right I am not smart enough, after all I was only 22. I had started reading a book by Brene Brown and she made some statements that stopped me in my tracks.

“I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.

Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.

A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor. They just hurl mean-spirited criticisms and put-downs from a safe distance. The problem is, when we stop caring what people think and stop feeling hurt by cruelty, we lose our ability to connect. But when we’re defined by what people think, we lose the courage to be vulnerable. Therefore, we need to be selective about the feedback we let into our lives. For me, if you’re not in the arena getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.” (Brown, 2012)

So I started Garish gal knowing that I might not have enough money (that’s what SBA loans are for) and that I might not be smart enough, but I had to get in the arena and try. I get to learn new things when I encounter something I am “not smart enough” for, and get to grow and stretch into a better business woman daily. Get in the arena, it will be the most rewarding thing you have ever done.

For some of our shoppers, Spring Break time is upon us! While I am not going on any Spring Break trips (sigh) I always love when I see posts about books people have read and LOVED.

I took my own little vacation earlier this year to Florida. All I packed in my suitcase: books & bikinis. I am an introvert and LOVE my alone time. So I packed my bag full of books and bikinis and headed to the beach. I couldn’t have asked for a better combination.

Here are some of my favorite recent reads that you can take with you to the beach, or just a comfy spot on the couch if you are having a staycation!

I loved this thriller! She definitely keeps you guessing to the end. There are twists and turns at every corner. I read a lot of books like this and ended up figuring it out about midway through. There were a few surprises that I didn’t see coming! This one is for sure a must read–you literally feel every range of emotion!

I LOVED this book. It starts out a little slow, but then has you FREAKING out the entire rest of the book. It was one of those you were REALLY trying to figure out what was going on because it was SO messed up. I could not put this book down, once it got going, it was a crazy rollercoaster! Great fast and suspenseful read!

This was hands down my favorite that I have read in a while. I was actually so scared at one point, I had to stop reading! The suspense and story line was SO intense. You had NO idea what was going to happen next, who was good or bad, or if the main character was even alive!! This is a must read and one your really need to read in one setting. This Book Binge is better than a Netflix binge, I promise!

This one really threw me! I usually can predict what is going to happen in suspense thrillers, but I totally didn’t see this ending coming, which made it even more fun to read. This one really messes with your head. It travels backwards through the plot line leaving you trying to figure out what will happen next. I can’t say I loved how it ended, but it was for sure an interesting read.

As someone who literally watches Investigation Discovery channel EVERY SINGLE DAY, loves history, and listens nonstop to true crime podcasts, this was a great real life tale of the man considered to be America’s First Serial Killer. The fact that he killed SO many people and was able to get away with it still blows my mind. I also love the mix of building the city up while another person was breaking the city down. It also follows the architects that worked extremely hard to build up Chicago in time for the World’s fair, meanwhile H H Holmes is using the World’s Fair to murder people! My sister lives in Chicago and I had never heard of H H Holmes until I read this! It is a slower read, but truly fascinating.

For the #BossBabes….

I loved reading this book. It was a great read if you have your own business, want to have your own, or looking to pursue your passion. Garish Gal is a socially responsible company as we donate 10% of profits to education based nonprofit organizations (mainly Project 117 in Haiti). The whole idea of KIND as a company is AND meaning that you can sell something great AND have a socially responsible mission. He talks a lot about how to create a successful business after failure, which I think all business owners need to read about!

I wanted to share some of my family photos that were take by local Indiana Photographer Halee Betzner! She is insanely talented!

My sister, mom, and I wore Garish Gal clothing for the pictures-kind of by force, kind of not! I loved that each of us could find something that we felt comfortable & looked good in! That is what my aim is for Garish Gal-any age, any style, & any body type can find something they love!

I hope you enjoy our family pictures and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Merry Christmas ❤

I am so looking forward to my favorite time of year with my favorite people! #familyfirst

Growing up I would always hear adults talk about following your dreams. However, I never actually saw any of those adults truly following their dreams. I assume they told me to follow my dreams because they never did. Because they all ended up working in jobs that are nowhere near as fulfilling as they would have thought, but they paid the bills.

So as an adult, I did follow my dreams. My dreams have taken me to places I never thought possible. To places I saw in movies and thought were reserved for people that weren’t me. At 20, I moved to New York City to start an internship with a wholesale clothing brand. I loved the city- the feeling every single day walking to work. The hustle of everyone around you. Doing their all to make ends meet on their dreams. To this day, I still have never felt such energy in any other city.

I moved back to the Midwest in order to be closer to my family and to follow a new dream. Well, it wasn’t really all that new. Since I was a little girl, I dreamed of opening my own clothing boutique. For my 5th birthday, my only present request was a cash register so I could open my own store in my basement. As I got older, I put that dream on the back burner and chased a career I thought would suffice. When you tell people you are leaving a Division One Golf Scholarship and Pre-Dental Biology Major to move to NYC to work in fashion, you get some really confused looks.

To this day, it’s one of the best decisions I have ever made. Garish Gal come to be October 1st, 2015 and I don’t believe I would have had the courage to start if it wasn’t for NYC.

What Following Your Dreams Means….

When you follow your dreams, they don’t tell you what it really means. It means making sacrifices, wearing many hats, stepping out of your comfort zone, and making tough decisions. Its just you. You have to be the one that makes every single decision. You are the one that is taking all the risk. You are the one that has to move back in with your parents in order to be able to afford starting a new business. You are the one that has to work multiple flexible jobs to pay your own bills and still be able to focus wholly on your business. You are the one who has to try out new ideas in hope that they will work out well for the business. Your dreams don’t pay the bills-initially. Your dreams can be overwhelming and scary. But the feeling you get when someone tells you they love your business makes every emotion and stressful moment worth it.

What They Never Told You About Following Your Dreams…

When you follow your dreams, your dreams can take you places you never imagined before. As Garish Gal is still it its’ first year, I counted on slow and steady growth. But every time Garish Gal grows in unexpected ways, I am astonished. I get overwhelmed with humility and graciousness- it usually makes me cry (but don’t tell anyone!). Garish Gal has evolved and expanded my dreams into ideas and ways I had never thought of before. It makes me insanely excited for the future and puts the stresses in their place.

The coolest part of making my dreams come true is being able to give back. Being able to support nonprofits that fund and provide education for children is the most rewarding part of owning a business. Using an insanely materialistic and shallow industry to change the lives of children is my way of bucking the system. Buying clothes changes lives-that is just plain awesome.

So follow your dreams, be prepared for the wildest ride of your life, and soak up every single moment!